Considering our enthusiasm for spectator sports – whether measured in dollars or in time spent sitting in stadium seats or in front of a TV screen – it seems inexplicable that American culture still hasn’t been wholly infected with the rest of the world’s long-established passion for soccer (or football, as it’s known in the remnants of the British empire). We may have turned the corner when the word “vuvuzela” entered the popular lexicon, around the time of the 2010 FIFA World Cup hosted by South Africa. Nowadays more and more US schools and communities host their own soccer teams; but we still have an awful lot of catching up to do.